


Not Her First Rodeo

by FrostyEmma



Category: Ghostbusters (2016), Ghostbusters - All Media Types
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, Innuendo, POV Character of Color, Sushi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:54:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8099422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostyEmma/pseuds/FrostyEmma
Summary: “You thought sushi…” Patty needs to wrap her head around this one. “Was… a myth?”
 “No. Blah.” Holtzmann gestures in a circle with her chopsticks. “Automated sushi. Didn’t seem like a real thing.”
  Patty can’t help but smile. Or maybe roll her eyes. Maybe both. “But dancing pilgrim ghosts, that you can believe?”
Patty and Holtzy do that thing where they press their faces together. And maybe eat sushi. Maybe bibimbap.





	

This is not Patty’s first rodeo, and yet it takes her by surprise.

One moment, Holtzmann is showing her some new doohickey she’s made - looking real cute, sitting up on the stool with one ankle crossed over the other, and yeah, Patty should’ve been paying more attention to the doohickey, but…

Well, one moment, Holtzy is showing her the doohickey, and the next, they’re pawing at each other like two kids on prom night.

It’s not her first rodeo, but the speed of which it happens takes her by surprise.

The stool (and Holtzmann) ends up bumped against a row a lockers - probably firefighters used to keep their junk there, but now it’s full of Lord only knows what, and most of it Holtzmann’s - and it’s better this way, easier to brace themselves so they can get down to the business of kissing like the sale’s about to end.

Good thing Kevin’s out with his hide n’ seek league. Good thing Erin and Abby are out catching a movie or having girl time or whatever it is they’re doing.

Good thing they’re alone, because two seconds later, the stool slips out from under them and they both crash to the floor in a breathless, laughing tangle of limbs and stupidity.

“Do you, like…” Holtzmann gasps. “Do you, like, have a bed here? Do you have a bed here yet?”

Patty looks over at her. “You know I don’t have a bed here. You know I have my own place.” She’s not ready to get up yet, but she can tell her back is going to be feeling this nonsense tomorrow.

“You should have a bed here.” Holtzmann shifts onto one elbow and winks, and goddamn if that doesn’t unravel Patty right then and there.

This is how it starts.

\---

To no one’s surprise, Patty is working on her PhD in Urban and Architectural History. 

“That’s why I was working at the MTA,” she explains. “It was flexible. Good hours. Good benefits. And I could sit in my booth and read a lot.”

“I’ll bet you have the best taste in books.” Holtzman is eating a Twizzler as she says this, and it’s all Patty can do to focus on her mouth - _no_ , the _words_ coming out of her mouth - as she talks.

She remembers to speak. “Yeah, books. What about them?”

Holtzy smiles nice and slow. “Books. You have the best taste.” She pops the remainder of the Twizzler into her mouth. “In them.”

Patty is studying her mouth again. “In books?”

“In books.” Holtzmann leans across the work table suddenly. “Recommend me a few good books, Patty. You have good taste. Recommend me a few books.”

Patty stays up an hour past her bedtime (all ladies need their beauty sleep, and isn’t that the truth?) composing the perfect list.

\---

A few days later, Patty presents Holtzmann not with a list of books, but a stack of them. Good goddamn, girl’s going to read and absorb the classics.

“Okay, so here we have _A Global History of Architecture_.” Patty pushes a very thick book into Holtzmann’s hands. “Now I know it’s not all dead bodies and slime, but it’s a good foundational read, start you off right.”

Holtzy smiles a very appealing, pearly-white smile. “How do you pronounce their names?”

“Mark Jarzombek and Vikramaditya Prakash?” Patty says. “Like that.”

“I like hearing you talk.” Holtzy smiles again, and Patty unravels a little bit. “I just wanted to hear you talk.”

It’s not her first rodeo, but this girl is working her over.

She’s just about to go over the rest of the books - a nice, but not at all intimidating, stack of books about the history of architecture in New York. Including her favorite, _Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan_. Even the name is perf.

But then Holtzmann says, “When are we going to go out for dinner?”

Patty blinks. “Just the two of us?”

Holtzmann flashes that canary-eating grin again. “Just the two of us. And then we can…” She clears her throat, says the words very fast. “We can do that thing again. That we did the other day.”

Patty raises an eyebrow. “That thing?”

Holtzmann nods. “That thing.”

“What thing?” Patty wants to hear her say it. She drums her fingers against _Delirious New York _.__

“That thing,” Holtzmann repeats. “Where we pressed our faces together. And fell on the floor. That thing.”

“Oh, that thing,” Patty says.

“I liked that thing,” Holtzmann says, and Patty’s on the damn hook again.

Okay, then. Okay. 

Dinner.

\---

They go to dinner, cute little place called Sushi Go! (yes, with the exclamation point), with cozy little booths surrounding a sushi conveyor belt.

“This is a thing?” Holtzmann settles into the booth and stares very hard at the sushi rotating throughout the restaurant on multicolored plates. “I thought it was a myth.”

“You thought sushi…” Patty needs to wrap her head around this one. “Was… a myth?”

“No. Blah.” Holtzmann gestures in a circle with her chopsticks. “Automated sushi. Didn’t seem like a real thing.”

Patty can’t help but smile. Or maybe roll her eyes. Maybe both. “But dancing pilgrim ghosts, that you can believe?”

Holtzmann shrugs. “I’ve seen dancing pilgrim ghosts, baby. Never seen assembly-line sushi.”

“Let Patty help you, honey.” She takes two blue plates of the freshest looking salmon nigiri off the belt. “Patty knows from good sushi.”

“You know,” Holtzmann says thoughtfully, tapping her chopsticks against her chin, “I’ve never actually eaten sushi.”

Patty nearly drops her beautifully fresh salmon nigiri. Her mouth definitely drops open. “What?” She can’t, can’t, _cannot_ get her head around this one. “How long you lived in the city?”

Holtzmann makes a whiny little ‘eh’ sound. “A number of years.”

“How long?” Patty demands. “How many years?”

Holtzmann coughs a number. It sounds suspiciously like a whole helluva lot. 

“Oh no. No, no.” Patty shakes her head, but her eyes are determined. “No, this cannot stand. You better make a whole list. A whole list of what you haven’t eaten.”

Holtzmann smiles nice and big, and she is lucky she’s cute. “You gonna educate me, Patty?”

Patty nods. “I’m gonna educate you.” She pops the nigiri in her mouth, but she can’t help but mutter around it. “Lived in the city this long, never had sushi. Probably never had bibimbap. Probably never had empanadas.”

“I have had that,” Holtzmann kind of whines, but she pulls it off. Sounds adorable instead. Lucky her. “I’ve at least had that.”

“Well.” Patty takes two golden dishes off the conveyor belt - tempura spider rolls, her favorite. “Small favors.”

“You’re no small favor. Not you.” Holtzmann clears her throat. “You’re magnetic,” she says quietly, and Patty is so lucky this isn’t her first rodeo - or even her third - or she’d come apart right there. 

“Pulchritudinous,” Holtzmann adds.

Patty raises an eyebrow. “Okay, don’t push your luck.”

“Thaumaturgic.”

“Stop now.”

Holtzmann looks up. Smiles. “Diaphanous.”

Patty snorts. “What, you have a thesaurus in your lap? Don’t lie.”

And anyway, Holtzmann picks up the salmon nigiri and chews on it thoughtfully for a moment. Finally she says, “It’s good. You have good taste.”

Patty nods. “Damn straight.”

\---

They do that thing again.

It doesn’t happen quickly though. Holtzmann ends up eating her weight in sushi, and then they get fried green tea ice cream, and then plum wine goes so well with fried ice cream, and then miraculously they have room - or maybe they just stuff themselves - for a bowl of fried red bean ice cream before Holtzman finally slams her hand against the table and calls it quits.

Patty invites her home.

Her roommate is away for the weekend - planned, thank you very much - and Holtzmann seems so impressed with the place.

“It’s… it’s, like, clean.” She fingers the red gauze curtains hanging in the living room window. “And has curtains. And rugs.”

“Ikea special,” Patty says, toeing off her shoes and depositing them on the shoe rack.

“And, like, you can see the coffee table.” Holtzmann runs her hand over the white coffee table (also Ikea). “It’s not covered in junk.”

Patty shakes her head. “Lemme guess.” She holds up a hand. “Clean houses? Myth?”

Holtzmann nods. “Total myth.” 

“I sense a backstory,” Patty says.

Holtzmann shrugs. “Nothing interesting. Can we do that thing now?”

They do that thing.

Goddamn, they do that thing.

It’s not Patty’s first rodeo, but apparently it’s not Holtzy’s either, and before long, she’s making Patty’s toes curl, making Patty dig her fingers either into Holtzy’s hair or the mattress (both, definitely), making Patty sing, because otherwise she is going to SCREAM.

At the very end, she does scream - “oh damn, Holtzy, oh god, OH GOD!” - and it feels so good, it feels so damn good that Patty doesn’t care if the trifling upstairs neighbors hear. She kinda hopes they do, in fact.

Holtzy comes up and lays down next to Patty, and they have their arms around each other, the both of them naked and warm and spent.

“You liked that, right?” Holtzy grins. “Sounds like you liked that.”

“Oh, I liked that,” Patty says breathlessly. “I liked that a lot.”

“We’ll definitely have to do that again sometime,” Holtzy says. “With bibimbap.”

Patty raises an eyebrow. “With bibimbap?”

“I mean, like, we go eat it first.” Holtzy snuggles down against Patty’s chest. “And then we do this. And then again. Wash, rinse, repeat.”

Slowly Patty says, “We dating now, Holtzy?”

Holtzy’s grin is enough to light up the room, good Lord. “Can we be?”

“Well.” Patty smiles and pretends to consider. “I mean, you’re okay. You’re cute. Dangerous. But cute.”

“That’s a good thing?” Holtzy says, and dammit, she really is cute.

“Yeah,” Patty says, and hugs her a bit tighter. “That’s a good thing. I’ll keep you around for a little while.”

Holtzy raises her head up and, without warning, kisses Patty long and slow on the lips. 

“Okay,” Patty says when they break apart, and Holtzy’s smiling down at her with bright, happy eyes. “Okay, maybe a little while longer.”

Holtzy’s smile turns into that grin of hers. “I’ll take it,” she says, and snuggles back down in Patty’s arms.

It’s not Patty’s first rodeo, and that’s enough to tell her that this is going to be one helluva ride.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, I started writing this in July, a few days after the movie came out, but then was hit with writer's block. And then finally in September, it all came to me in a few hours. So here it is. Finally.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> Comments, questions, feedback, and recommendations of excellent cuisine are all warmly welcomed.


End file.
